English, and ships bound to India stop and take

la-ma

quad-ru-ped

Mex-i-co

Span-i-ards

Es-qui-meaux Por-tu-guese Pat-a-go-ni-ans A-fri-cans squir-rels Hay-ti

Turning from the eastern hemisphere and its large divisions-from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia-to the western half of the world, you will see that the great continent of America extends the whole length of the western hemisphere, through all the climates of the world, from the intense cold of the northern Arctic Ocean blocked up with ice, through the temperate and the hottest climates of the world, to the cold again in the extreme south; for the hottest regions of the globe lie in the middle of it, and extend like a broad belt around it.

The extreme north, then, and the extreme south, are equally cold. Those parts of the earth between the hottest and coldest regions are called temperate, because they are neither very hot nor very cold. Now, as America stretches through all these different climates, it has a great variety of productions.

The sugar-cane, the cocoa-nut, and all the palm tribes, the lime, the pine-apple, the cocoa, grow in its hot countries-in Brazil and other parts of South America, in the West Indies and Mexico. Here also are flowers of the richest hue, birds with bright and gay plumage, such as the

chattering red and green parrots, and the lovely little humming birds, blue, and green, and gold, not bigger than an humble bee, flitting in the sun. Of quadrupeds, the lama of South America is peculiar to that country. It is used as a beast of burden, and is of the camel kind, only much smaller.

In the temperate regions of North America are forests of pine, beech, maple, and oak. The apple, pear, and peach, flourish there; and fine harvests of Indian corn and other grain.

In the cold regions the vegetation is poor and stunted. Dwarf birch trees, and berry-bearing bushes, lichens and various mosses, live among the

snow.

All sorts of animals with warm furs inhabit these regions, as well as the temperate climates— bears, foxes, wolves, squirrels, and beavers.

North and South America are united, as you see in the map, by a long narrow isthmus, called in its narrowest part, the Isthmus of Darien, or Panama, and in the sea or gulph between, lie those islands called the West Indies.

America, both North and South, is chiefly inhabited by Europeans, or rather descendants of those Europeans who in former days conquered the native tribes, and drove them far inwards to their forests and lofty plains.

*

North America has been peopled chiefly by the English, including Irish and Scotch. Part of it is called British America, because it is under the government of Great Britain; and part is called the United States of America, because though the people of these countries are also of English

descent, and speak the English language, they have a government of their own, and form a separate nation.

The descendants of Spaniards inhabit the country west and south of the United States, which is called Mexico; it extends along the isthmus to South America.

South America is a peninsula, and is inhabited chiefly by European nations; the descendants of French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English settlers.

Still there are many native tribes to be found, both in North and South America.

In the far north, bordering on the icy ocean, dwell the Esquimeaux, a short ugly race of people, with large thick bodies, and small legs and feet; with black hair, and complexions which never see the light, for they are always covered with grease and dirt. They live on animal food,-on bears, wolves, whales, seals, or any flesh they can procure, and gorge themselves with oil and fat.

The only interesting objects about them, are their dogs, their sledges or snow carriages, and their snow villages.

They build their houses in a cluster together, looking outside like hills or mounds of snow, with an entrance so low, that you are obliged to crawl in on hands and knees. They have roofs of thick ice, which would also form windows for them, were they not covered with filth. A lamp of oil is suspended from the ceiling and always kept burning, and a bench of ice, covered with skins, surrounds the chief apartment. Their sledges drawn by their strong, active, and intelligent dogs, are the next objects of notice to a stranger; and then their own

little thick persons, wrapped up in the beautiful furs of the wolves or bears they kill in the chase, or else in the skin of the seal which they spear.

The natives of America best known to us, and found in all the back settlements, both of North and South America, are called by Europeans American Indians. These were the old inhabitants of the country, and were of various tribes, a few of which still remain. They have a clear skin, of pale copper colour, and black hair, and some of the tribes have fine intelligent faces, with kind and good qualities, but they have unsettled habits, and are continually at war with each other. They subsist by hunting, and are skilful in the use of the bow and arrow.

The more southern country of South America is inhabited by an uncivilized race of large stature, called Patagonians.

The West Indian islands are peopled by English and other European races, with a large number of negroes. These poor Africans were formerly brought over from Africa and sold as slaves, but they have been set free by an order of the English Parliament. One of these islands, called Hayti, is both inhabited and governed by negroes of America.

Every thing in America is large; great rivers, vast lakes, immense forests, wide and almost interminable plains, and some of the loftiest mountains in the world.

OF POLYNESIA.

Polynesia is the name given to the islands of the Pacific Ocean. They are very numerous, but

not large. If you look at the map of the western hemisphere you will see that the Pacific is quite dotted over with small islands; some of them very beautiful, being covered with cocoa-nuts and other trees. But the most curious thing about these islands is, that many of them were formed by a little animal. Multitudes of these little creatures form for themselves a habitation of a substance called coral, which grows with them as the shell of a snail does; only, those shells all stick together and form a mass, which is constantly increasing in size as the animals increase in numbers; at last the mass of coral becomes even with the sea, and after a time reaches above its level, and thus becomes an island.

There was a certain slave named Androcles, who was so ill treated by his master, that his life became insupportable. Finding no remedy for what he suffered, he at length said to himself: "It is better to die, than to continue to live in such hardships and misery as I am obliged to suffer. I am determined, therefore, to run away from my master. If I am taken again, I know that I shall be punished with a cruel death; but it is better to die at once, than to live in misery. If I escape, I must betake myself to deserts and woods, inhabited only by